Indian Railways passengers travelling on Delhi-Lucknow and Mumbai-Ahmedabad Tejas Express trains can enjoy many facilities such as hotel bookings, taxi services and baggage pick and drop, etc.

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Indian Railways is considering to develop a policy where passengers will have the opportunity to order food of their choice

New Delhi: Indian Railways passengers travelling on Delhi-Lucknow and Mumbai-Ahmedabad Tejas Express trains can enjoy many facilities such as hotel bookings, taxi services and baggage pick and drop, etc. Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav said on Monday, "The IRCTC has come up with so many things. They can provide food of your choice, provide taxi facility from house to the station and station to the house, baggage services like picking up baggage from home to station, entertainment services, provide a wheelchair. They are free to do anything."

As per the news agency, Yadav told the reporters that just like an airport is run by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and under set procedures different airlines operate their flights on its premises, similarly private train companies all over the world operate the same way.

"It will take time but we have decided that we will work towards this. We have started talking to stakeholders and a lot of companies have shown interest," he added.

"The Indian railway will continue to run the trains, but at some point of time, we will have to give them to private operators where they will provide services. Just to prove the concept we have already approved two trains to be given to IRCTC," Yadav further said.

Railways are also planning to put a regulator in place to set a ceiling for fares, before allowing private players to run trains. This will help to prevent the fare hike during the festive season. "It will take some time to bring in private players to run trains. We will have the regulator, which will deal with fare, allocation of routes and safety. The trains and routes will be allotted through a transparent bidding process."

Yadav said that the Indian Railways is considering to develop a policy where passengers will have the opportunity to order food of their choice through e-catering, that too, at a reasonable price. "We understand that there are different kinds of clients. For people who may not want to spend too much on the food we get something like a chole bhatura, dosa, puri sabji for Rs 50. For others who are willing to spend Rs 200 to Rs 250, they can order food through e-catering. We are still finalising the details."